“The Testimony of Robert E. Wallack”
I, Robert E. Wallack, 48 Ansonia Road, Woodbridge, CT 06525, wish to inform Thomas E. Devine, author of “EYEWITNESS: The Amelia Incident,” concerning my own personal involvement in an incident on Saipan in 1944, which in my opinion indicated the presence on the island of Amelia Earhart.
I was a machine-gunner with “C” company, 29th Marines. We came ashore in the second wave near the sugar mill at Charon Kanoa. We turned north, headed for Mt. Topatchou, where I was wounded on the hand. The wound was slight, not meriting evacuation. I was ordered to remain with a group to pickup stragglers in the devastated Garapan area. We entered what may have been a Japanese Government building, picking up souvenirs strewn about. Under the rubble was a locked safe. One of our group was a demolition man who promptly applied some jell to blow it open. We thought at the time that we would all become Japanese millionaires. After the smoke cleared, I grabbed a brown leather attache’ case with a large handle and a flip lock. The contents were official looking papers concerning Amelia Earhart concerning maps, permits and reports apparently pertaining to her around-the-world flight. I wanted to retain this as a souvenir, but my Marine buddies insisted that it may be important and should be turned in. I went down the beach where I encountered a naval officer, and told of my discovery. He gave me a receipt for the material, and stated that it would be returned to me if it were not important. I have never seen the material since.
While on the island of Saipan I was told of a White man and a white woman who were on the island before the war, and I recall someone saying something about a graveyard. I wish to make a point here concerning the brief case and the contents. The case did not appear as if it had ever been immersed in water, and the contents were not blurred at all. Therefore, these items could not have been obtained from a plane that had been reported down at sea some seven years prior to this event.
I had reported this event to my mother, telling her to watch the newspapers for reports about Earhart, since I had found her papers on Saipan. I have told my brother, and sister, and all six of my children. I have repeated this story to people over the last 43 years. What else could I as a private citizen do? There are others who were on Saipan at that time who had information as to the presence on the island of Amelia Earhart. Perhaps they too will now come forward since Tom Devine has presented his EYEWITNESS report in the Amelia Earhart Incident.
Witness: Mrs. H.K. Wallack Robert E. Wallack USMC
1527l61 June 13, 1987
Amelia Earhart’s Fate on Saipan Continues to Haunt My Dad
by Bill Wallack
My father never talked about his experiences during World War II in the South Pacific even when prodded by one of his six children. Whatever these horrific memories were, they were never discussed with my mother. One only has to sit through “Saving Private Ryan” to assume his tour of duty must have been hell on earth. However, there is one story we all heard from an early age and vowed never to forget. He and a group of fellow members of Company “C,” 29th Marines, entered what appeared to be a Japanese municipal building on Saipan. While souvenir hunting they found in the rubble a safe they blew open. “We thought we would be Japanese millionaires,” my Dad said.
He took a leather attache case from inside the safe. The contents were maps, passports, and visas, permits and reports concerning Amelia Earhart’s flight around the world. Dad believes they offered clues about the truth of what happened to her. It is a truth some may not have wanted the world ever to know.
Certainly every teenager right out of high school who entered the war was familiar with the many amazing accomplishments of the world renowned aviatrix
not the least of which was her being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928. The Marines on Saipan knew of Earhart’s headline making exploits. She disappeared after leaving New Guinea on the last leg of a world spanning flight. It was another first for a female pilot in 1937. There was a Pacific wide search for Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, with Japanese ships participating.
My Dad had just turned 18 when he came ashore on Saipan as a machine gunner in the second assault wave on the island. Still he immediately knew the importance of the official looking contents of the case and wanted to keep the materials. “But my Marine buddies insisted that it may be important and should be turned in,” he told us. “I went down to the beach where I encountered a Naval Officer and told him of my discovery. He gave me a receipt for the material and stated that it would be returned to me if it was not important. I have never seen the material since.” My Dad knew the briefcase and the papers might involve U.S. national interests. He wrote to my grandmother and told her to watch for a story on Amelia Earhart to appear. None appeared.
The senior looking officer wore no insignia or rank in order to lessen his target value for enemy snipers, but the officer had “scrambled eggs” on his cap visor. He signed with his service identification number, not his name.
Additionally, while on the island of Saipan, my Dad was told of a white man and a white woman who were on the island before the war, and he recalled someone telling him something about a graveyard.
“The case did not appear as if it had had ever been immersed in water and the contents were not blurred at all,” he said. “Therefore, these items could not have been obtained from a plane that had been reported down at sea, some seven years prior to this event.”
My Dad came upon the Earhart case while scouting around during recovery after having his hand wounded by mortar shrapnel on Saipan. When he got the receipt from the Naval officer, he kept it in a waterproof belt along with a rosary and other personal items.
Nine months after discovering the Earhart case, he and other surviving Marines from Saipan were shipped to Guadalcanal to prepare for the climatic Pacific fight on Okinawa. That battle began on April 1, 1945, and my Dad fought until he took a bullet in the upper leg in late May. His bloody clothes and the belt containing his personal items and the receipt were cut from his body before he was rushed to a hospital ship offshore.
The only proof there ever was an Amelia Earhart briefcase was lost 350 miles from Japan.
During the past 58 years, my Dad has told a number of people this story. A crew from a program hosted by Connie Chung came by our house in Woodbridge, Connecticut. He was flown to California for a segment on “Unsolved Mysteries.” He’s told his tale to the press, historians, and the History Channel and others. He has spoken at airports on behalf of women’s groups who continue to tout the achievements of Amelia Earhart.
More recently in June he was invited to Annapolis where he made a two hour tape for the Oral History Unit of the Marine Corps Historical Center and was interviewed by fellow Marine and historian Lt. Col. Gary Solis.
Getting his story into the Marine Corps archives meant a lot to him after almost six decades. He is now in his seventies. “I’m happy because it records my plain and accurate account of what happened and what I touched and saw,” he said. He also gets excited when he hears from fellow Marines like when he sent me a copy of a letter to the editor of the Cincinnati Post-Jounal from September 1999 that read: “I don’t believe Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared around Howland Island. Why? Because I believe more in the honor and integrity of a fellow combat Marine on Okinawa than I would any bureaucrat in Washington, where, for some, lying and deceit are matter of convenience. The United States knew about the buildup by the Japanese in the Pacific. “
My Dad is realistic. He knew the officer he turned the Earhart belongings over to was also fighting a war. He might have died or gone down with the Earhart papers. He does believe, however, that Earhart might have had an official mission. He believes the native islanders and the researchers who claim that a white woman and a man were jailed, shot, and buried in a Saipan cemetery.
“The Japanese were expanding bases all over the Pacific in 1937,” he said. “If she came down in the ocean, the Japanese naval fleet had work ships and barges that could have easily retrieve the airplane and its pilots.” My Dad says time is running out on people who can support that theory. On Saipan today, the islanders have turned much of their heritage over to the Japanese casino industry. Sure, I know my Dad is part of another U.S. conspiracy theory, but why shouldn’t I believe him? After all, he’s not just another Marine. He’s my Dad.
©2007 Gregg Hagley
